In modern technology, metal oxide powders and in particular powders comprising submicron (superfine) metal oxide particles are vastly used. For example, superfine iron oxides are used for chemical processing including synthesis, cracking and oxidation. Iron oxides (II, III) are used in the manufacture of magnetic storage devices. Submicron powders of zirconium oxide (ZrO2) have revolutionary application for ceramics used in aerospace defense industry as a heat shield of the space shuttle shell, missile radar shield etc. Successful application of submicron metal oxides to electrodes of lithium-ion batteries was reported in numerous publications.
There are many uses for titanium oxide powders and particularly titanium dioxide powders. Such uses include pigments for paint and coating, coloring agent in the food industry, materials (particularly substrate) for catalysts used in the chemical industry, materials for electrochemical power sources etc.
There is a huge demand for titanium oxide powders and in particular for nano-size titanium dioxide powder in the painting and cosmetic industries, in medicine and in numerous R&D teams developing new and improved sorts of traditional materials.
Titanium oxide nano-powders may be produced by many methods, including evaporation of liquid titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) at about 150° C. followed by mixing its vapor with air and hydrogen and heating the gaseous mix in a special reactor at a temperature of up to 2500° C. where nano size particles of TiO2 and hydrochloric acid (HCl) are formed. The minimum size of the particles is approximately 20 nm TiO2 nanoparticles could also be synthesized by low temperature chemical reactions, but those processes require high cost surfactants and titanium precursors. Moreover, all the processes described above could not guarantee manufacturing of a final product having a controlled crystalline structure.
Therefore, there is a need for an efficient, low cost method for preparing high-purity nano-sized powders of metal oxides (e.g. titanium oxides).